Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Benjamin Cutler

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

, ED (20 April 1918 – 23 September 2006) was an Australian politician, holding office for 28 years as an elected member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

for

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

. Cutler was Country Party leader for sixteen years and became Minister for Education and Deputy Premier for ten years under

Premiers Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Robert Askin Sir Robert William Askin, GCMG (4 April 1907 – 9 September 1981), was an Australian politician and the 32nd premier of New South Wales from 1965 to 1975, the first representing the Liberal Party. He was born in 1907 as Robin William Askin, b ...

and Tom Lewis.

Early life

Charles Cutler was born in

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in 1918, the son of George Cutler and Elizabeth Booth Cutler. His cousin, Sir Arthur Roden Cutler, was a

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

recipient and a long-serving

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia, Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the governor ...

. Charles' ministerial service including as Deputy Premier commenced the year before his cousin's appointment as governor, meaning that Charles was in the cabinet that recommended Roden as governor to the Queen and that later Charles was sworn in as a minister in by his governor cousin. At an early age, Charles moved to the nearby regional city of

with his family, where he was educated at Orange Rural School and Orange High School. After completing his schooling he gained employment from 1934 until 1939 as an office worker with the Producers Co-Operative Distributing Society Limited of Orange.

Military service

Cutler served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, first as a member of the

Citizens Military Force The Australian Army Reserve is a collective name given to the reserve units of the Australian Army. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, the reserve military force has been known by many names, including the Citizens Forces, the Citizen ...

(CMF; now known as the Australian Army Reserve) from 1938 to 1940. He went on to serve with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) from 1940 until 1945 and also the 2/17th Battalion in Tobruk and Syria. He was wounded at

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. Following the war, Charles Cutler was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the CMF from 1948 to 1960 at which time he transferred to the Reserve Forces. Cutler was awarded the Efficiency Decoration (ED) in 1959.

Personal life

Charles Cutler married Dorothy Pascoe on 4 March 1943 in the Holy Trinity Church at Orange; they had one daughter and three sons. Following World War II, Cutler returned to his employment at Producers Co-operative Distributing Society Limited in Orange from 1946 to 1947. During this time, he was also a sportswriter for the ''Bathurst Times'' newspaper. He also became the vice-president of the Orange Returned Serviceman's League Club and also president of the Orange Apex Club and district rugby union.

Political career

Charles Cutler joined the Country Party in 1944. He was elected as the Member for the

Electoral district of Orange Orange is an Electoral districts of New South Wales, electoral district of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a regional electorate that covers four local government ...

at the

on 3 May 1947. He was re-elected in 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1971 and 1973 – ten times in total. In 1958, he was elected as the Deputy Leader of the Country Party, and in 1959, he became party leader, a position he held for 16 years. On 13 May 1965, he became Deputy Premier, Minister for Education and Minister for Science under the newly elected

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, in NSW's first non-Labor government in 24 years. In later years, he also held portfolios as Minister for Local Government, Minister for Highways and Minister for Tourism. For several months in 1968 and 1972, he was Acting Premier and Treasurer in Askin's absence. He remained as Deputy Premier for most of 1975 under Tom Lewis after Askin's retirement that year. In 1973, Cutler was appointed a

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(KBE). In 1974, Sir Charles led New South Wales at the Premier's Conference and Loan Council. On 16 December 1975, Sir Charles retired from the New South Wales Parliament after serving continuously as a member for 28 years, 7 months and 14 days.

Later life

Sir Charles Cutler retired to his home at Orange. He became a member of the Former Members of New South Wales Parliament Association. From 1976 to 1978, he was a director of the Sun Alliance Insurance Group. From 1978 to 1988, he was the Chairman of that organisation. Sir Charles, who had been suffering from cancer, died at the age of 88 on 23 September 2006 in hospital in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

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Leader Andrew Stoner said that Sir Charles Cutler's commitment to building stronger rural communities was legendary. "He was responsible for creating a separate Department of Decentralisation and Development and helping strengthen country communities through the establishment of a Country Industries Assistance Fund." Former Nationals Leader and Deputy Prime Minister

Tim Fischer Timothy Andrew Fischer (3 May 1946 – 22 August 2019) was an Australian politician and diplomat who served as leader of the National Party of Australia, National Party from 1990 to 1999. He was the tenth Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, d ...

, who served under Sir Charles Cutler, says his contribution to education and infrastructure in rural areas was underestimated. "He made a giant contribution to the educational resources of the state of New South Wales," Mr Fischer said.

Honours

Cutler was appointed a

(KBE) in the Civil division on 1 January 1973 for service as Deputy Premier of New South Wales. On 1 January 2001, Cutler was awarded the

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

for service to Australian society through parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cutler, Charles 1918 births 2006 deaths People educated at Orange High School (New South Wales) Australian Anglicans Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian colonels Australian corporate directors Journalists from New South Wales Australian sports journalists Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Deputy premiers of New South Wales Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians People from Orange, New South Wales Ministers for education (New South Wales)